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The Super-Dri Xceed performs at Rutland Water

As new stock of the Super-Dry fly line range finally rolls out of the warehouse and anglers are putting them to the test, it’s great to see that the technology behind these lines are performing as we expected and the Super-Dri family is gaining some respect among floating line fishermen.

Kieron Jenkins, our Online Marketing Manager spent two days fishing at Rutland Water testing our floating fly lines in search of some of Rutland’s specimen trout.

Reports have been saying Rutland Water has been fishing it’s socks off with plenty of good size fish being stocked, caught and returned back to the water – practically throughout the whole lake. Most fly fishermen would have seen by various sources that large brown trout caught from Rutlands north arm just a few weeks ago, if that alone wasn’t enough to tempt me im unsure what is!

I arrived at Rutland water around 9am Saturday morning to a gentle ripple and high, thick cloud. “Ideal conditions for surface feeding fish!” said one of the rangers. The temperature was fairly high after a few days of standard Autumn weather, so I chose to fish a team of dry flies from the off. From past experience it can take some time for fish to switch onto dries, especially now we enter the cooler months of the year.

My line of choice for this particular session was a WF7 Super-Dri Xceed, a fly line which has been developed to create high line speed, perfect for quickly covering rising fish or casting into a strong headwind, keeping your loops razor sharp and your flies turning over each cast.

Motoring from the jetty to the top of the north arm it was like driving into dry fly heaven. A gentle ripple and perfect light to spot your dry flies, the kind of thing anglers dreams are made of. This time of year you would be silly not to tie on a daddy long legs pattern, any sort of heat and a gentle wind will always get the daddies tumbling along the water surface.My cast consisted of two amber dry flies, one a sedge pattern and a bits pattern on the middle dropper, with a foam daddy on the point. For dries, tippet materal is always Airflo’s Ultra Strong Co-polymer, it sits low in the surface film but isn’t so heavy to drag the flies beneath the surface.

Due to the lake being low for bank-side maintenance, the top of the north arm is choked with weed – most, a foot or so below the surface. As we motored close to the bank in the shallow water the motion and sound of the boat spooked three or four fish sitting close to the surface, one, we actually watched swim along side of the boat as it tried to bolt away. A good sign for a dry fly fisherman!

Parking the boat on the edge of the weed beds with some visible weed below the boat I took the time to degrees my leader to ensure there was zero flash from the nylon. Second cast I spotted a fish push water, not even breaking the surface around 20 yards down wind, the perfect opportunity to test the casting ability of the Xceed. Stripping a few extra yards of line from my fishing reel, I cast the flies with perfect turn over at the fish now around 2 yards closer than previous. As the flies landed gently on the water, a head emerged and engulfed my middle dropper. With a standard floating line it’s a challenge to hook a fish at distance, the drag from the surface slows down your reaction time and can sometimes lead to missed fish, but the way the Super-Dri range seems to repel water, I could set the hook almost instantaneously to the strike.

The fish took off well in the shallow water, lunging for the submerged weed and getting the nylon caught in the string like matter. Some side-strain was all it took to drag it free from the weed and the fight continued. What I love about Rutland and especially the north arm, is that you never know what you’re going to hook into, it could be a run of the mill stocky, or a fully overwintered torpedo. I was fortunate enough to slip the net under this fish, a beautiful mended stocked fish of which I estimated just over three pounds in weight and in perfect condition for this time of year, a great start to the day and the ideal opportunity to test the Super-dri Xceed.

About Kieron Jenkins

Born and raised on the rivers and lakes of south Wales, Kieron Jenkins won his first cap at the age of nine, fishing for the Welsh Youth International team. He has gone on to prove himself as one of the leading competition anglers of his generation, both on the river and also the stillwater scene. Specialising in nymph and dry fly fishing in the small streams and larger, freestone rivers of South Wales, he’s also a highly respected and innovative fly tier. Kieron regularly contributes quality features to online and printed game fishing publications. When he’s not fly fishing, kieron is digital marketing manager at Fulling Mill.